"When you meditate, don't send your mind outside. Don't fasten onto any knowledge at all. Whatever knowledge you've gained from books or teachers, don't bring it in to complicate things. Cut away all preoccupations, and then as you meditate let all your knowledge come from what's going on in the mind. When the mind is quiet, you'll know it for yourself. But you have to keep meditating a lot. When the time comes for things to develop, they'll develop on their own. Whatever you know, have it come from your own mind.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... eleft.html

"When you meditate, don't send your mind outside. Don't fasten onto any knowledge at all. Whatever knowledge you've gained from books or teachers, don't bring it in to complicate things. Cut away all preoccupations, and then as you meditate let all your knowledge come from what's going on in the mind. When the mind is quiet, you'll know it for yourself. But you have to keep meditating a lot. When the time comes for things to develop, they'll develop on their own. Whatever you know, have it come from your own mind.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... eleft.html

my Adhitthana for the rest of february:at least 30 min. of sitting meditation a dayat least 30 min. of walking meditation a day

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

That's quite impressive. I "peaked" at around 2 hours a day a couple of years ago and it's been down-hill ever since.

I can usually only do that on weekend days.

"When you meditate, don't send your mind outside. Don't fasten onto any knowledge at all. Whatever knowledge you've gained from books or teachers, don't bring it in to complicate things. Cut away all preoccupations, and then as you meditate let all your knowledge come from what's going on in the mind. When the mind is quiet, you'll know it for yourself. But you have to keep meditating a lot. When the time comes for things to develop, they'll develop on their own. Whatever you know, have it come from your own mind.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai ... eleft.html

This month started awful. Daily sittings were going 'wrong', virtually no mindfulness no matter how hard I tried. I simply could not stay aware of incoming and outgoing breath. For the few seconds I could keep the mind on breath, I would notice that my natural breath was like loud bellows and yet I could not feel its touch at all. Mental. I was coming to hate these sittings since I could not cope with the intense pain of the last 10 minutes. I came very near to quitting in frustration. I was also feeling very miserable and depressed in general for inexplicable reasons; I have not noticed such strong suicidal urges and feeling of hopelessness since the month I started this practice.

Anyway, I persisted with daily sittings and then had a breakthrough in March. One day before sitting I told myself that maybe I was trying too hard to stay aware of respiration. So I decided to quit fretting about slow progress, pain and all the rest and just sit with breath for as long as I could. And the instant I accepted that this practice was a marathon and not a sprint after all, my breath became light and refined and mindfulness improved dramatically. So much so that I was surprised when the alarm rang, unlike in the days past when I would be wishing for alarm to ring to end my torture.

So I get to experience the extremes in the same month, yet again. Mind is now wandering much less, and comes back to breath much sooner. Towards the end of the month I began to experience good mindfulness. I have a feeling that in future I will look back at this month as the turning point of my practice, and possibly life. I made big progress this month, something I would not have thought possible the way things started in Feburary.

Physical and mental hindrances are all either reducing or do not have as much power over me as they did until a couple weeks ago. I can maintain fairly good, stable posture for most of the sitting, I only have to straighten the back maybe once every five minutes or so. It is only the last ten minutes that are rather challenging on the lower back, and the sharp pain destroys my awareness of the breath. But that will also improve with time and persistent efforts.

And now onto the eighth month. This month I resolve to practice Anapanasati meditation every morning and evening for at least 60 minutes. I may not have internet access for upto two weeks this month, so some entries will be missing. But I will be sitting everyday. I am not going to quit after coming so far.

20140315Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

20140316Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

2014031755 minute Morning sitting.55 minute Evening sitting.

2014031855 minute Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

2014031955 minute Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

2014032055 minute Morning sitting.55 minute Evening sitting.

20140321Morning sitting.55 minute Evening sitting.

20140322Morning sitting.55 minute Evening sitting.

2014032355 minute Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

2014032455 minute Morning sitting.45 minute Evening sitting.

20140325Morning sitting.50 minute Evening sitting.

2014032655 minute Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

20140327Morning sitting.Evening sitting.

2014032850 minute Morning sitting.50 minute Evening sitting.

29 to 13:Did my morning and evening sittings, although most were less than 60 minutes.

2014041455 minute Morning sitting.50 minute Evening sitting.

Last edited by Weakfocus on Mon Apr 14, 2014 2:13 pm, edited 29 times in total.

Hi weakfocus,Well done. When meditation becomes unpleasant there is a tendency for some of us to think we are going backwards. But one's experience of meditation is no indication of our progress. Keep that in mind the next time you are facing difficulties.I wish you all the best with your resolve to meditate for two hours a day. It's the same length and frequency that I meditate. My advice to you is to treat yourself kindly. If you do not make a sit - so be it. It's more important that it becomes a regular part of your life and that it becomes am established part of your life. In my experience, that only happens when you are relaxed and comfortable.I wish you every success.With metta,Ben.

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.

For some time now I have been feeling the need/desire for a third sitting. So this month my resolve is to do three Anapanasati sittings a day: morning and evening sittings for 60 minutes, and an afternoon sitting of 30 minutes duration to begin with. Eventual aim is to have three equal length sittings per day, but that will have to be done gradually lest the mind rebel hard and upsets the usual two sittings.

This month I resolve to do at least two Anapanasati sittings a day: morning and evening sittings for 60 minutes. Motivation for a third sitting has evaporated, I'll just aim to maintain two sittings/day for now. If someday I sit in afternoon I'll just add that to daily record instead of setting expectations and then recording failure.

My goal is to meditate at least one half hour a day. So far I've been pretty good about keeping up with it but don't do it at a set time each day which I feel is not optimal.

Is this a good thread to post other resolutions (such as abstaining from listening to music, which I find reduces my mindfulness in daily life) or is there some separate thread for that?

Each day or every few days I'll post some brief notes on the length and type of meditation done and what posture (I frequently use restorative poses from yoga as I find many of them enhance calm and concentration.) I also want to track how concentrated the mind is during each session.

new schedule has me getting less sleep so I'm far more likely to doze off than I was before. mfulness during the day has improved greatly, however, which at the moment to me is more important than my lvl of concentration during formal practice.

metta meditation helping greatly... going to continue trying a new guided one each day. I've been using Ayya Khema's, in case anyone is interested.

I am going to post my meditation intentions and activities here each day so as to strengthen my new practice, since I found reading through this thread so helpful.

Reflecting for a few moments each morning on the Four Noble Truths and the Five Precepts., just familiarising myself with these.

Yesterday I watched a video on meditation for beginners by Ajahn Brahms as well as talks by Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, did some reading on the history of Theravada.

Sat for two meditations of 20 minutes each in the morning and evening. Still very distracted (unable to stay with the rise/fall of the abdomen for more than a few moments at a time) but for the most part felt relaxed and alert, Some backache and itchiness.

Today I am going to do the same: two meditations of 20 minutes each and also a guided meditation while I have time during the day for this. Reading websites and checking out forum links and resources.